Primedia's 2004 Home
Entertainment Show... or, In Search of High End Audioby Myles B. Astor

Close to 15,000 audio, video,
and home theater enthusiasts attended Primedia's 2004 Home Entertainment Show
at the New York Hilton, but to this show-hardened veteran, the turnout seemed
far smaller. Few rooms were packed on either Friday or Saturday, nor were there
long lines of people waiting outside the hottest exhibits. As is usually the
case on the show's last day, most rooms were deserted on Sunday. Many big-name
companies, among them Krell, Madrigal, Audio Research, Burmester, Transparent
Audio, VPI, Lyra, Rowland, and Wilson Audio (only present because Sony used
their speakers in their demo room), not to mention leading New York high end
audio dealers like Lyric Hi-Fi, Innovative Audio, and Stereo Exchange, were
conspicuously absent. Even sadder was the fact that very few industry notables
were on hand to meet and greet showgoers. Certainly, half the fun for attendees
is shooting the breeze with their favorite designers! This was hardly great
promo for an industry that can use all the good press it can get.

The million-dollar question is,
when did the show jump the shark? Why did high-end manufacturers and stores who
have supported the show in past years bail? Is it politics? The answers most
often given include the show's escalating costs (essentially precluding many
small manufacturers) coupled with belt tightening, and the fact that the show is
held right before the slowest part of the selling season, which means that it
doesn't translate into sales. Some in the industry question the necessity of the
Primedia show, much less two of them plus CES.

Despite these problems, our
industry needs a consumer high-end audio show, both to draw new people into the
fold and to publicize the hobby. The show also serves to keep audiophiles' blood
boiling and maintain their interest in the hobby. Where else can audiophiles
congregate to make new friends? (The net doesn't count.) The overriding
question is why can't the high-end audio industry organize its own high-end
show, and not rely on a magazine to represent it? Isn't it about time that
high-end manufacturers controlled their own fate? Holding a top-flight high-end
audio show isn't rocket science, as some might have you believe. Our industry
has enough business-savvy people to organize a show, and there's no doubt that
audiophiles would travel to—and pay more for—an exclusively high-end audio (even
video) show, replete with all the leading manufacturers, proper demos, and
interesting events.

Picking up the
Scent

The trail began in the booth
area, a melting pot of manufacturers, reviewers, and enthusiasts. This was home
base for the leading music software companies and distributors, including
Acoustic Sounds/Analog Productions, Chesky Records, the recently resurrected
Mobile Fidelity, Elusive Disc, CISCO Music, Sundazed, Classic Records, Music
Direct, Red Trumpet, to name but a few. After my bit of a hiatus from the show,
it was extremely gratifying to see so many companies continuing to carry the
analog baton, releasing both old and new recordings on LP, even showing that
there are still some great, undiscovered recordings! Without their dedication
and diligence, analog lovers would be largely left high and dry.

Nowhere, however, was the
discrepancy between reported and perceived attendance at greater odds than in
the booth area. Unlike past Stereophile shows, the booth area never had
diehard audiophiles standing three and four rows deep, wading in, hunting, doing
whatever was necessary to get their hot little hands on that new software title.
I couldn't believe that there weren't a few new recordings that attendees heard
during the show that they couldn't live without!

Though a boatload of analog and
digital titles were worth a fight, selecting the best-of-show recordings was a
no-brainer: Analog Productions 45rpm jazz reissue series from the Riverside,
Pablo, Contemporary, and assorted jazz and blues vaults. Among my faves are
Cannonball Adderly with Bill Evans, Know What I Mean? (Riverside 9433),
Duke Ellington and Ray Brown, This One's for Blanton (Pablo 2310-721),
and Lightnin' Hopkins, Goin' Away (BV1073). My one regret is that Chad
Kassem didn't ship me more of these outstanding 45rpm reissues! (On the other
hand, could my bank account have stood the hit?) Fortunately and unfortunately,
what these discs do is show the superiority of the analog medium. While the
Adderly and Evans' Riverside recording retains the left/right-channel sidedness
of the original release, all of these reissues possess a stunning sense of
dynamics, ease, space, realism, and tonality. I was also pleasantly surprised to
find that AP had eliminated the edge and hotness that plagued many an original
Pablo release.

Only a nose behind the AP jazz
reissue series is the simply amazing LP reissue, Favorite Chinese
Instrumentals (LP001) from Winston Ma and First Impression Music. Remember,
you heard it here first. Do whatever you need to order this disc before it goes
out of print. You won't regret it! (FCI's companion disc, River of Sorrow,
is already out of print—though Ma confided that he plans to reissue this highly
successful release—and there are four more titles in the pipeline!) The CD
version of FCI has long served as one of my reference discs, but no more.
It's not even close. For those ensconced in analog, it will come as no surprise
that the LP version obliterates the CD, in even conceivable way, shape, and
form. The differences are so dramatic that I have permanently retired the CD.

The number of new SACD and DVD-A
titles grows with each passing week, and both formats were well represented at
the show. If we're to believe the numbers given (which don't include mail-order
sales, for many the main source of these discs!), SACD is outselling DVD-A by
roughly a two-to-one margin. At the end of the long software trail lie Ray
Kimber's new DSD recordings. Kimber has recorded The Academy of St. Martin in
the Field Chamber Ensemble and the Gospel group T minus 5 with his new IsoMike
(an omni-directional microphone placed between a heart-shaped acoustic baffle).
This soon-to-be-released pair of recordings employs two mics with up to four
recorders synched up to allow the use of multiple pairs of mics. In some ways,
Kimber is rediscovering what was originally imagined for audiophile
recordings—leading artists captured in great sound with no filtering, dynamic
compression, or close miking. The sound was very impressive, possessing the
lifelike instrumental palpability heard in the handful of great triode
amplifiers, but the music had a bit of an edge that, as Ray Kimber suggested,
was caused by 80-kHz high-band noise. (As good as the DSD recordings sounded,
why didn't Ray run an analog recorder in parallel for comparison's sake—or for
us analog enthusiasts?)

Hot on the
Trail: Accessories

Shows are a great place for
rooting out new tweaks, and HE NY 2004 had its fair share. A quick trip through
the show turned up several new vibration isolation systems and racks, plus room
treatments, contact enhancers, tube dampers, AC line treatment devices, etc. The
first on my accessory finds list is Music Direct's Tube Dampers. Available in
both standard and high temperature versions, these rings are designed to work
with small-signal tubes. Now all we need are some tube dampers for large
capacitors! I can't wait to install these rings (the high-temperature rings
versions require four per tube) around the small-signal tubes of my
conrad-johnson amplifiers. Stay tuned for further thoughts.

Gutwire had an accessory called
the Notepad on display at a nearby table. This accessory, which just begged for
a listen, is intended for placement under and over sources of vibration. Filled
with a specially formulated, high-molecular weight gel to eliminate vibration,
resonances, EMI and RFI, each Notepad will support 22 pounds.

Room acoustics continue to be an
enigma to many audiophiles, and a frontier that remains largely unexplored.
Shatki demonstrated the effects of their Hallograph Soundfield Optimizers in the
Brinkman USA/Sound Advice room, while Echo Busters showed their new Echo Buster
Active panels employing Electroclear technology in the booth area. One room
treatment that caught my interest was Eighth Nerve's (formerly known as
Roomtunes) Pret-a-Porter series of room treatments that supercede the Response
line.

No well-heeled audiophile would
be caught dead placing his or her equipment on the floor or on ordinary shelves.
The quickest way to transform a megabuck amplifier into a low-end receiver is to
place it on a carpeted floor! Several excellent vibration platforms, stands, and
equipment were on display from Silent Running Audio, Symposium Acoustics, and
Harmonic Resolution Systems. Gingko Audio's Cloud 10 vibration isolation control
platform, with or without their nicely designed, custom acrylic dustcovers (not
a bad idea for turntable owners if properly executed), looks to be an affordable
solution for those suffering from bad vibrations. My only reservation might be
using the Gingko “ball” suspension with sprung turntables, as the two “springs”
could beat against each other and degrade the sound. There is no doubt that the
system can reduce tube preamplifier noise, and begs a listen under turntables.
One turntable designer that I ran into at the show had tried the Cloud 10, and
was pleased with the results. Also on display, underneath Sutherland Audio's new
battery-powered phono stage, was another new platform from First Impressions
Music. This nice-looking platform consists of two pieces of clear-finished hard
maple separated by three cups containing steel ball bearings.

Finally, the electricity feeding
audio gear still garners the attention of high-end companies. A variety of
devices were on display at the show, including some balanced power devices from
Equi=Tech and Goertz, and line treatment products from companies such as Richard
Gray and Shunyata Research. The most interesting of the lot, however, was Lloyd
Walker's SST contact enhancer (see David Robinson's PF review). SST
contains ultra-pure, micron-sized particles suspended in an organic-based
solvent, and is claimed to increase the conductivity of connections. Walker does
caution against using too much of the fluid, as well as the need for a couple of
hours of break-in time.

Getting
Sidetracked, or No Home Entertainment Show is Complete Nowadays without HT,
HDTV, HD-DVD, DVD, 1080i and Many More Acronyms

Many of us saw the writing on
the wall several years back. Five years ago, it was abundantly clear that home
theater would eventually dominate the Stereophile (now Primedia) show.
Roughly half the rooms at this year's show featured home theater. I appreciate a
good picture as much as the next person, especially after my recent purchase of
Sony's outstanding 34-inch 16 x 9 CRT HDTV. There's nothing like watching the
Discovery channel or Channel 13—or some of the prime time shows on the major
networks, or Showtime, or HBO—in HD. (By the way, if any Time-Warner execs are
reading this report, it's time to add more HDTV programming to your cable
system. There's absolutely no excuse for subscribers to be without ESPN, MSG,
TBS, etc. in high def! If other cable services can offer these channels,
Time-Warner has no excuse.)

The quality of most of the home
theater/video rooms at the show, whether they were of the projector, plasma, or
DLP variety, was disappointing. Those in the press trumpeting the superiority of
DLP don't seem to be aware that in many cases they're only viewing a 720i, not a
1080i input. Explain, then, how DLP is better than the best plasma or HDTV CRTs?
Maybe I'm just spoiled by my Sony, but most pictures seemed as if the contrast
or line definition was turned up all the way for the WOW—not reality—factor,
resulting in a rather artificial, sterile picture. It's analogous to turning up
the treble control, except it affects the eyes. Real life, unless my eyes need
further testing, just doesn't look like the video images at the show.

The most exciting news in video
land is the impending release of the new blue-laser HD-DVD players (something
that I wrote about in Ultimate Audio years ago). Based on what was shown
at the show by Sony and Samsung, it won't be long until we're enjoying our
favorite movies in 1920 x 1080 high definition. Sony showed their Blu-ray
player, along with their highly acclaimed Qualia projector and a Wilson Audio
Series 7 in 9.3 based format. Trailers of Spiderman 2 and 50 First
Dates demonstrated the medium's promise, but the surround-sound/audio
upsampling/SACD portion of the demo was far from optimal. Things are not all
rosy in video land—there's a format war looming on the horizon. Neither camp's
systems are compatible, and of course the consumer is placed in the middle
again. Will these companies ever learn?

At Last: The
Hunt Ends

Providing a blow-by-blow
description of the entire show is beyond the intent of this article. I'll leave
that chore to others with more patience. Instead, I've focused on the rooms or
products that got my juices flowing!

Sporting several rooms and
systems at the show, Singer's $210K statement system comprised the new JM Labs
Reference Utopias driven by two pairs of paralleled BAT VK150SE amplifiers
providing 600 watts on the top end and BAT VK600 solid-state amplifiers
providing 1 kilowatt on the bottom, a BAT VK-51SE preamplifier, a dCS Vienna
word clock and Verona upsampler digital front end, and cabling and power
treatment courtesy of Shunyata Research. Rarely do expensive systems live up to
advance billing (and expectation), but this demo proved an exception to the
rule. Considering that the room was only slightly smaller than Royal Albert
Hall, the system was effortless, low in coloration, and had great presence.
Despite their size, the Utopias disappeared into the background and allowed the
music to take center stage. Out-of-absolute-phase recordings were painfully
obvious on this system.

Several other large speaker
systems were scattered throughout the show. NOLA, the high-end company formerly
known as Alon, showcased their $45,000 Proteus speaker driven by a pair of
bridged conrad-johnson Premier 140 tube amplifiers, along with the
soon-to-be-released ACT2 preamplifier (the follow-up to the highly successful
ART) and the $3300 Lector tube CD player. Much more information about the
Proteus can be found at nolaspeakers.com, but suffice it to say that it
continues Alon's—oops, NOLA's—Alnico magnet driver philosophy. Those familiar
with the “Alon sound” won't be disappointed—a soundstage beginning in back of
speakers and excellent imaging and transparency, along with, considering show
conditions, deep bass.

A few doors down from the NOLA
room, I found the new 300 wpc Tenor Audio 300HP hybrid amplifiers ($37,000)
driving the 95dB-efficient Epiphany Audio Model 12-12 speakers ($14,900) plus a
$6,490 E-Cube subwoofer that weighed a paltry 220 pounds. This, along with the
NOLA room, was one of the better sounding rooms at the show. Ancillary support
was provided by Shunyata Research, Silent Running Audio Cruz stands, and the
well-represented Muse Audio Model 11 universal digital player. Dropping in at
the end of the day on Saturday provided me an opportunity to hear “When I Fall
in Love” from Sam Cooke at the Copa. The system was eminently listenable.
Its many strengths included soundstaging, smoothness, low-level resolution,
though the top end was a touch too soft and closed-in for my taste.

Let's face facts—no room that
uses a $27,000 analog source can be all bad! In fact, the Walker/Kharma room
proved a soothing respite for show-weary ears. The system consisted of Kharma
3.2 FE speakers ($21,000), the Ceramique Subwoofer in its first public demo
(priced at $7000), Kubala-Sosna wiring, a Lamm Audio L2 linestage ($14,290) and
1.2 Reference amplifiers ($19,690), and the Walker Audio Reference Phono section
($12,500) and Proscenium Gold turntable. Kharma also debuted its new $75,000
Midi Exquisite-DE speakers in an adjacent room.

Two things struck me in Walker's
room. First, Lloyd Walker had replaced his much-cherished Clearaudio cartridge
with a new cartridge called the Magic Diamond ($5000). As it turns out, Walker
not only uses the Magic Diamond but is the U.S. importer. Unfortunately, he
didn't have any information on the transducer. Second, Walker had situated his
phono section just inches from the back of the tonearm to minimize signal loss
and path length—excellent idea! Maybe someday we'll see a company build a
turntable into a phono section (Clearaudio, by amplifying the signal at the
headshell, and VPI, by building the phono section into the turntable, tried
reducing the signal path, but unfortunately these ideas never came to
fruition).

The last of the supersystems was
presented by John Rutan of Audio Connections in New Jersey, and featured a pair
of bridged, monster-sized Rogue Audio Zeus 225 wpc tube amplifiers configured
for triode, along with Rogue's prototype Concept preamplifier, a Clearaudio
Master Reference turntable (with multiple tonearms), a Wadia digital front end,
and Vandersteen 5A speakers. Total price of the system? Well, the analog front
end alone ran for roughly $47,000.

Musical Surroundings, importer
and distributor of many fine analog products, announced a significant revamping
of the Benz cartridge line, long a personal favorite. Both the Ruby ($3000) and
Reference Series 3 ($2000) cartridges come with newly updated generator
mechanisms and assemblies. Mono versions of all Benz cartridges are now
available, and even a 78-rpm version is available upon request.

A couple of floors up from NOLA
and Ephiphany was Simaudio of Canada, who displayed their new Moon Orbital
Universal Player. Capable of reading CD, SACD, DVD-A, DVD-R, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-RW
and MP3 discs, this player seems like the perfect answer for those who are into
audio and video—or collecting acronyms. Priced to go at $6500.

The next stop on the high-end
audio trail led to the von Schweikert/VAC room, where tunes were being played
through the new, stackable Von Schweikert VR-4 Jrs. ($4000). Whether it was due
to the newly developed, low distortion, composite cone drivers, or other
factors, the Jrs. were the least colored von Schweikert speakers that I've heard
to date. Driving these attractive speakers was the drop-dead-gorgeous 110
watt/channel VAC Phi Beta integrated amplifier ($18,000). Equipped with KT88
output tubes, the PB is fully remote controllable, and can easily be integrated
into a multi-amplifier home theater system. CDs were played back on the Oracle
transport feeding the Electrocompaniet DAC. The cabling by Verbatim included
thin foil interconnects and speaker cables made from 1- to 2-inch mono crystal
copper. The speaker cables are relatively inexpensive at $900 to $1500 per
8-foot pair.

Last stop on the trail was the
Music Hall room. Was it the smell of Scotch or the sound of music playing in the
room that led me there? (Unfortunately, I had clients to train later in the day,
so couldn't sample the Scotch.) Roy Hall always strives to provide great value
for the money, but this year he went slightly upscale, showing the new Epos M22
speakers ($1995/pr), the $1300 Maverick SACD player, the $1300 Mambo
preamplifier, and at the top end of the spectrum, the $2695 Shanling SCDT200A
tube SACD player. I managed to wrangle a comparison of the two SACD players, and
the Maverick proved to be more than capable of competing.

Since
Primedia dropped the contest for best show sound, here are my suggestions for
new show awards: